Friday, February 29, 2008

If you don't have a tissue handy, you're being asked to do the "sleeve sneeze." When you cough or sneeze into your hand those germs can be transferred onto other surfaces and infect others, so health officials say you should use your shoulder, elbow or forearm to a-choo.

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Stéphane Dion followed the script developed by his senior caucus leadership as he announced yesterday that there wasn't enough in the Harper budget to justify an election.

The Liberal Leader, who insiders say wants an election, did not look like a happy man as he emerged from the House of Commons lobby, hand-in-hand with his wife, Janine Krieber, and as per the strategy told reporters that, although he didn't like the budget, the Liberals would allow it to pass.

The fact that his wife was there supporting him shows how difficult this has been.

On one side, we have Stéphane Dion, Ralph Goodale, Michael Ignatieff, "one MP", and "some MPs" - on the other side, Liberal Senators David Smith and Céline Hervieux-Payette and, actually, the entire Liberal Senate.

Did you notice something?

Everyone must come away from this story with the notion that the Liberals that people elect and directly support either by contributions or volunteering passionately want an election. It's the Liberals that people don't elect that do not want to bring down the Conservatives.

Yes, there are nervous nellies (to use Scott's term) within caucus, but none of those are apparently Stéphane Dion's "closest advisors". All of Stéphane Dion's closest elected advisors want an election, his unelected advisors, that he can conveniently blame for the decision not to bring down the government, do not.

This story then leaks. Angry Liberals are then supposed to say, "Well, Stéphane Dion tried - we love him again."

The Liberals, Mr. Dion included, do not want an election now because they believe they would lose or they do not have enough money to fight one. That's far more believable than Mr. Dion and his elected advisors really pushing for an election and then having it vetoed by Senators Smith and Hervieux-Payette.

If Mr. Dion wanted to bring down this government, he would bring it down. The budget vote, being a confidence motion, would be whipped and he'd tell his Senators to take a hike or go sit as Conservatives. Then, he'd get new advisors.

Encounters with government bureaucracy can be stressful ordeals at the best of times; at the worst, when things don’t go your way, they can be incredibly frustrating. Apparently, this is true even if you’re a Polaris Music Prize–winning musician. Former Torontoist contributor Carly Beath pointed us toward Owen Pallett recounting his recent travails with the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care on Stillepost. His story is a cautionary tale for bands, musicians, and anyone else who travels frequently.

When renewing his health card, Pallett answered the clerk’s questions openly and honestly only to get burned by it. Although Ontario is his place of residence, his musician’s lifestyle of constant touring and travel to recording studios elsewhere meant Pallett couldn’t satisfy the clerk that he met OHIP’s eligibility requirements, which demand that an applicant to have been "physically present in Ontario for 153 days in any 12-month period." That he couldn't meet the residency requirements seems especially ironic given the degree to which Pallett’s hometown permeates Final Fantasy’s music, with references to the CN Tower, Brad Lamb, and much more.

Embedded link mine.

I'm inclined to believe that, if true, this is just an example of a member of the civil service going to extreme lengths to ensure an applicant complies with the letter of the law. That, under the definitions of eligibility, this individual is a "transient".

To be eligible to vote in an Ontario election, the prospective voter must be:

18 years of age or older,

a Canadian citizen, and

a resident of an electoral district in Ontario.

There are no residency-length requirements to vote as far as I could find.

Further, if you need to prove you are eligible to vote, you can show identification. The combination of documentation allowed is almost infinite, and in this case, I'm sure the OHIP applicant in this story would qualify. The individual mentions having cell phone bills and would likely have a credit card or debit card.

In short, this individual would be legally entitled to vote in Ontario, but technically does not qualify for OHIP. Further, this individual could conceivably vote for a party that promised to make this go away. Funny, that. They could vote to eliminate or improve OHIP, but would be denied coverage.

Even worse - if this applicant had children who travelled with him, they'd be denied coverage as well.

I understand why a government would like to limit public health insurance to an individual based upon their likelihood of not actually residing in the province, but to deny coverage due to a residency-length requirement seems wrong.

Finally, Obama appears to have a better record last year in the Senate on getting his bills and amendments passed than does Clinton. I've listed everything that passed the Senate for each [of] them at the end in boxes. But check out Thomas.loc.gov for yourself. I may have missed something.

The highly-respected British science journal Nature has called the Harper government's record on science and the environment "dismal." The PM was unavailable for comment yesterday, as he was in an emergency cabinet meeting called after Wednesday night's lunar eclipse to determine why the moon had disappeared.

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

It is incredible how much smoke is being generated by the fire downtown. The CBC report has the smoke smell hitting east of Yonge, but I could smell it as I was starting to pass St. Lawrence Market at Front and Jarvis.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Yesterday, the Canadian Press reported that Liberal party leader Stéphane Dion has urged the Canadian government to recognize Kosovo's declaration of independence. Further, the CBC adds some additional detail.

"You have here a population requesting its independence unanimously," [Stéphane Dion] added, referring to the Kosovars. "Nobody will contradict that. They have been victims of very, very serious negative attacks from the former state, Serbia."

Kosovo's 10 Serbian MPs boycotted the assembly session in protest at the declaration.

Those 10 MP's represent 8% of the assembly. Not much of an influence in the assembly overall, I admit – it does however indicate how much more complicated a situation this is.

Hypothetically, suppose in a similar circumstance, under a Stéphane Dion-led federal government, a majority Parti Québécois government in Quebec declared independence to an empty Quebec National Assembly, when the opposition provincial Liberals and ADQ abstain. Would the Liberals led by M. Dion recognize and accept an independent Quebec? This would be a "unanimous" declaration of independence too.

Of course, the federal Liberals would not - but the precedent for recognizing such a declaration would have been made.

In addition, if international powers decided to recognize an independent Quebec, like say Serbia and Russia in retaliation for recognizing Kosovo, then what?

There is no question that Kosovo has suffered greatly at the hands of Serbian governmental policy, so it should come as no surprise that the province would seek independence. I also agree that the circumstances behind this declaration are different than a similar one in Canada.

As I said, this is a complicated issue.

A better Canadian position might be a conditional recognition of Kosovo independence itself dependent upon:

continued UN or European Union governance for the time being;

negotiating terms of settlement with the Serbian government (per UN rules on creating independent states); and

a referendum with a "clear question" being conducted in all 30 municipalities within Kosovo to indicate support or opposition to this declaration. Those municipalities opposing the declaration could choose to remain within Serbia.

At the very least, a municipality-by-municipality referendum would confirm that the people of Kosovo want independence - thereby weakening Russia's opposition. Or, it would confirm which parts of Kosovo want independence and which wish to remain a part of Serbia - perhaps suggesting that partitioning the province is a betteridea.

This would clear and reconcile our position on declarations of independence, both domestically and internationally.

A large block of rural delegates will attend an Ontario Progressive Conservative convention in just more than a week, says the group's co-founder, Randy Hillier, a move that adds intrigue to a showdown between party leader John Tory and his detractors.

Members of the Ontario Landowners Association, a libertarian group that rails against excessive government interference, will assert their agenda by involving themselves in the party's policy process, says president Jack MacLaren.

At a minimum, the group will challenge Mr. Tory's moderate remake of the party. "I think the party has to come out and define itself as a Conservative alternative to the Liberals," said Mr. Hillier.

Psychologists at Purdue University have discovered in rat experiments that heavy use of no-calorie sweeteners can actually make it harder to shed extra pounds. The thinking is that the sweeteners make it more difficult to control food intake and body weight.

I think diet-based or low/zero calorie foods psychologically, or maybe physiologically as the study suggests, give the consumer the belief that they can then increase their calorie intake either during or immediately after the meal. So, for instance, if I go to a restaurant and I order a diet pop, I subconciously convince myself that I have now made more room for dinner. It's the old joke when you go to the fast food place, you order the double cheese and bacon burger plus the extra large fries, but then add a Diet Coke because you're on a diet.

Secondly, whenever I had a diet pop on its own, I got hungry almost immediately afterwards. I attributed this to the fact that my body knew I was consuming something, but it had no calories in it. It then ramped up wanting more calories, so I would grab a snack - usually starchy (like bread) or highish fat (peanut butter or cheese). That's bad, so I try not to drink diet pop all alone.

I think consuming the chemicals in these products needs to be subject to the same "portion control" that you would give to food with calorie contents. Someone needs to figure out the ratio of consumption of aspartame or saccharin versus the slow down in calorie burn.

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Via Canadian Cynic, we learn that a commenter at a conservative blog asks:

Tell me what - in the left's mind -the conservative government has done that has NOT earned your respect.

Well, I certainly do not consider myself a "lefty" - others may disagree - but, I'd still like to comment on the question. First, let me reprint the comments where I share the same opinion as the commenter about why the Conservatives have lost my respect.

For instance, for nearly three months after the military stopped transferring the prisoners to the Afghans over torture concerns, the Canadian government neglected to tell Canadians. When the truth finally came out because of a document in a public court file, Prime Minister Stephen Harper's spokeswoman said the military had changed the policy without telling the government; a day later she recanted.

The question from Liberal MP Mark Holland was both obvious and necessary: Will Canadians be informed when and if Canada's military resumes handing over prisoners to the Afghan authorities? The answer from Conservative House Leader Peter Van Loan: "What we will not do is what the agent for the Taliban intelligence agency wants us to do over there, which is to release to them information on detailed operations in the field."

Emphasis mine. That last comment, "release to [the Taliban] information on detailed operations in the field" segues nicely into a display of hopefully general incompetence.

In a letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Dion said Guergis, the secretary of state for foreign affairs, put his security at risk by revealing details publicly of his itinerary in Afghanistan during a visit last weekend.

Animals are a major group of multicellular, eukaryotic organisms of the kingdom Animalia or Metazoa. Their body plan becomes fixed as they develop, usually early on in their development as embryos, although some undergo a process of metamorphosis later on in their life. Most animals are motile - they can move spontaneously and independently. Animals are heterotrophs - they are dependent on other organisms (e.g. plants) for sustenance.

...

The Ecdysozoa are protostomes, named after the common trait of growth by moulting or ecdysis. The largest animal phylum belongs here, the Arthropoda, including insects, spiders, crabs, and their kin. All these organisms have a body divided into repeating segments, typically with paired appendages. Two smaller phyla, the Onychophora and Tardigrada, are close relatives of the arthropods and share these traits.